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The government of Indonesia targets to see 35 million domestically-produced mobile phones (per year) starting from 2017. Meanwhile, Indonesia’s wireless network is to be upgraded to 4G speeds by the same year (a 4G network is the new necessity for those with smartphones or tablets) although currently the country’s telecommunication operators are still in the middle of building receivers to boost 3G utilization. The government hopes to see a total of USD $4.5 billion investment in the telematics sector.
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The year 2015 may be a good one for Indonesian cement makers. The Indonesian government under the leadership of Joko Widodo is eager to invest heavily in the country’s infrastructure as this is one of the main bottlenecks that blocks higher economic growth. In the Revised 2015 State Budget the central government set aside IDR 290.3 trillion (USD $22.3 billion) for infrastructure development. Surely, the country's large cement producers - Semen Indonesia, Indocement Tunggal Prakarsa, Holcim Indonesia and Semen Baturaja - will benefit from this.
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Despite sharp competition, slowing profit margins and a saturating voice and SMS services market, Indonesia’s telecommunications industry still has lucrative prospects as there is still room for growth in data services, value-added services and still relatively low smartphone penetration (as well as low Internet penetration). However, of the big three Indonesian telecommunication network and services providers - Telekomunikasi Indonesia (Telkom), XL Axiata and Indosat - only Telkom managed to post net profit over 2014.
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On March 31, 2015, Bank Indonesia issued regulation number 17/3/PBI/2015 concerning Mandatory Use of Rupiah in the Territory of Indonesia (BI Regulation). In the much discussed Law number 7 of 2011 concerning Currency the mandatory use of rupiah in Indonesia was already regulated, however could be exempted in case the contract parties had agreed in writing to the terms of payment in a currency other than rupiah. Under the new BI regulation the terms on the use of foreign currencies are further restricted. In this column we discuss the most important changes based on the BI Regulation.
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The views expressed in these business columns are the views of the authors or the interviewed persons only and therefore do not necessarily reflect the views of Indonesia Investments. The authors are free to ventilate their opinions about the Indonesian business climate. Facts presented in these columns are the result of the author's own research or indicated sources, read disclaimer.